vognoduut623

Chinese Lessons
Commentary by Philip Bowring

DHAKA, Bangladesh The current 10-day, four-nation tour of South Asia by
China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, is at one level a triumphal affair. Here
is the outwardly modest Wen basking in China's success, spreading the gospel
of good will to these neighbors whose combined populations equals that of
China.

Here is a China that will give aid, help them escape from poverty, make
Asians proud and speak up for multilateralism and the United Nations
system - articles of faith throughout the subcontinent. .But Wen's tour is
also a reminder that China's global economic influence is now a factor in
relations between the states of South Asia in a way that China's ideology
never was.

It thus presents India, anxious both to develop its strategic relationship
with the United States and be the leader of South Asian economic
integration, with awkward balancing acts. .Wen will visit India last but
longest, flattering Indian egos with a trip to high-tech Bangalore and
hearing eloquent Indian rhetoric about a new era of Asian cooperation driven
by mutual economic interests.

Trade has indeed been increasing rapidly as China sells manufactured goods
and buys iron ore from India. Commerce may keep border disputes and
Beijing's ambiguous attitude to enlargement of the UN Security Council -
which India hopes to join - in the background. .But Wen's visits to Pakistan
and Bangladesh may be at least as significant in suggesting to India that a
new attitude to its immediate neighbors is needed if the subcontinent is to
get back on a par with China. Wen reaffirmed the strength of relations with
Pakistan despite its improved relationship with Washington and past support
for the Taliban.

He was keen, too, to emphasize that South Asian countries should "treat each
other as equals," a jab at India that went down well in Pakistan and in
Bangladesh - which feels that it is treated by India as the United States
used to treat Mexico. .Bangladesh is particularly in need of China's moral
support. There is an impression among diplomats here that India's recent
rapprochement with Pakistan has caused New Delhi's propaganda and
intelligence machines to turn more attention to the alleged misdeeds of its
eastern neighbor. On scant evidence, Bangladesh is accused of harboring
insurgents in India's long-troubled northeastern states and of flooding
these states with illegal migrants. .I

ndia has endeavored - without success - to persuade the United States that
Bangladesh is on the way to becoming a failed state of Muslim
fundamentalists and assorted gunmen.

There is a belief here, not confined to nationalist Bangladeshis, that India
does not want Bangladesh to be successful as it would demonstrate the
potential for relatively small homogenous states on the subcontinent and
would show up the failures of Bihar and other adjoining Indian states. .

Bangladesh cannot escape dependence on India, which almost entirely
surrounds it. It needs more Indian investment and cross-border trade to
integrate markets. Links to Myanmar, Thailand and China will grow but are no
substitute. Many Indo-Bangladeshi disputes are petty or over matters that
neither government fully controls, such as smuggling of goods and people.
But one big issue could drive Bangladesh to seek much closer links with
China - the rivers that are its lifeblood. .India's plans to link river
systems include diverting water from the Brahmaputra, Bangladesh's single
largest water source, into the Ganges. Although India is being urged - most
recently in a World Bank report - to cooperate with its neighbors in sharing
waters and developing hydroelectric potential, it has a tendency to treat
Bangladesh as at best a little brother and at worst a vassal state.

That's where the Chinese come in. The headwaters of the Brahmaputra are in
Tibet. Should China thus not also be party to water-sharing talks? That is
not on New Delhi's cooperation agenda. .It is clearly not in China's
interest to be drawn deeply into South Asian disputes. But its prestige and
its appearance of benevolence, magnanimity and success suggest that the
newly confident, outward-looking India needs new approaches to its
neighbors. Can India learn from Wen's triumphant progress through the region
that it claims to lead? .

The author is former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review Courtesy: The
International Herald Tribune.

torpedo

http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/04/12/d5041201099.htm

Mob beats 3 cops for toll collection
Staff Correspondent

A mob yesterday beat up three policemen and turned them over to Shyampur
police after they had gone in plainclothes to collect illegal toll from a
three-wheeler garage at Rayerbagh in the capital.

Nayek Nuruddin, 30, and constables Rafiqul Islam, 28, and Motiur Rahman, 28,
from Razarbagh Police Lines Reserve Force went to the garage yesterday
evening and asked for Tk 4,000 in toll from Billal Hossain, the owner of the
garage, Shyampur police said.

Billal refused to pay them toll and a heated argument followed, which drew
local people's attention. At one stage, the mob roughed the policemen up
before handing them over to Shyampur police.

Billal filed a case under Speedy Trial Act against the policemen.

region

The

Yes, you are right Hindus should have take lesson from Chinese.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/4435135.stm

China 'crushing Muslim Uighurs'

The crackdown is done in the name of counter-terrorism, the report says

China has been accused by two US-based human rights groups of
conducting a "crushing campaign of religious repression" against Muslim
Uighurs.
It is being done in the name of anti-separatism and counter-terrorism,
says a joint report by Human Rights Watch and Human Rights in China.

It is said to be taking place in the western Xinjiang region, where
more than half the population is Uighur.

China has denied that it suppresses Islam in Xinjiang.

It says it only wants to stop the forces of separatism, terrorism and
religious extremism in the region, which Uighur separatists call East
Turkestan.

Detentions and executions

The report accuses China of "opportunistically using the post-11
September environment to make the outrageous claim that individuals
disseminating peaceful religious and cultural messages in Xinjiang are
terrorists who have simply changed tactics".

CHINA'S UIGHURS

Ethnically Turkic Muslims, mainly in Xinjiang
Made bid for independent state in 1940s
Sporadic violence in Xinjiang since 1991
Uighurs worried about Chinese immigration and erosion of traditional
culture

The authors of the report say it is based on previously disclosed
Communist Party and Chinese government documents, local regulations,
press reports and local interviews.

The report says the systematic repression of religion in Xinjiang was
continuing as "a matter of considered state policy".

Such repression ranges from vetting imams and closing mosques to
executions and the detention of thousands of people every year, it
claims.

"Religious regulation in Xinjiang is so pervasive that it creates a
legal net that can catch just about anyone the authorities want to
target," said Sharon Hom, Executive Director of Human Rights in China.

The report also reveals that almost half the detainees in Xinjiang's
re-education camps are there for engaging in illegal religious
activities.

Uighurs make up about eight million of the 19 million people in
Xinjiang.

Many of them favour greater autonomy, and China views separatist
sentiments as a threat to the state.